Monday, March 26, 2012

We've taken out our BuildingLink spotlight a couple times already in the course of this blog, to shine it on various members of our team--thinking, speaking members like Andrew Kaplan and Fran Besdin. Now we're bringing it out again, but this time it's shining on a piece of our platform that doesn't think and speak for itself...well, actually it kind of does...

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.
Emergency Broadcast Function (EBS): Well, first of all, let me just say that I function primarily to deliver important messages to people who need them--all you have to do is type what you want me to say in a box, and I'll call each of your residents with that message. So I'm a little offended about that whole "not being able to speak for myself" thing you just implied. And by the way, I also have a pretty great memory--all broadcast messages are archived so if you want me to send them again at a different time, I can.

Q: Ok, ok. I guess you are right. And you do have a very nice voice I might add--just the right amount of robotic. But tell me, how do you know which numbers to call?
EBS: Why, thank you. I try. As for your question about knowing which numbers to call, the kind people at BuildingLink already have two default recipient lists, "Residents Home & Cell" and "Residents Work" set up for every building. These lists pull information from the building's BuildingLink database, so they are automatically updated whenever resident contact information in the building is updated.

Q: And what if I want to create my own recipient lists?
EBS: Oh, you can, you can. You can create your recipient lists by pulling from different floors, lines, or locations, and you can also sort by type of resident (owner, subtenant). I can tell you people tend to sort by floors and lines when there is a water shutdown, or something like that. They'll tell me to call everyone on the B Line, and I'll do it!

Q: That's very kind of you--you know, I've heard that in addition to being very sweet, you also have an aggressive streak. Is this true?
EBS: Well, yes. I mean, I don't think I could do my job if I weren't aggressive. These people are relying on me to deliver important messages and I need to make sure I get through to everyone on the recipient list! So I call each person up to three times, until I get a live answer, or am able to leave a voicemail without interruption.

Q: And can anyone ever check to see what happened with each call you made (whether you reached a live answer, a voicemail, etc.?)
EBS: You betcha. You can run reports for every broadcast, and see EXACTLY what happened with each call--the time it was made, what kind of answer I received, even how long the call lasted.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Do you work at or manage a property where contractors and visitors need to be tracked and recorded? Do you keep IDs at the desk for security? If you answered yes to either of those questions (or even maybe if you didn't, but you'd like to start improving building security), you may be interested to learn about our license scanner.

With the scanner, you can capture visitor/contractor IDs and save them in the Event Log, every time you log someone in to the building. You can then go back and search to see who was in the building; each person's ID will be stored with his/her individual record. With some state licenses, you can even extract the name right from the ID, and pull it into the "comment" field to make the logging-in process easier.

Monday, March 12, 2012

We were very excited to find ourselves the subject of a SilverSpringPatch article by Nancy Pham, entitled Customer Service Gets Easier with Technology. Pham discusses two BuildingLink buildings, The Georgian and The Solaire, where BuildingLink has become quite a presence! At The Georgian, a 900-unit building in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, BuildingLink software is used "so extensively" that Senior Property Manager Timothy Lawson refers to it as The Georgian's "business partner." (See Lawson's full quote in Pham's article.) And different buildings find value in different aspects of the software; the main pull for The Solaire is BuildingLink's Public Display feature, which is a very effective way to communicate with residents.

We hope you enjoy the article as much as we did--and please contact us if you are interested in learning more. Anyone who is interested will find our pricing to be very competitive and reasonable, given the wealth of features we offer our customers!

Friday, March 2, 2012

While some housing markets in the U.S. are struggling, Toronto's is flourishing at the moment, says Doug Alexander in a Bloomberg.com news article. With more high rises being built than in any US city, including NYC, Toronto's "boom" is raising concerns that the housing demand may be overestimated, he writes. Many, however, say it is justified, given that Toronto is home to some of Canada's biggest banks, insurers, asset managers, pension funds, and financial services firms. Click here to read Alexander's full article.
Here at BuildingLink, we're expecting our presence in Toronto to strengthen over the next few years to accommodate the many buildings being constructed and the many future residents of those buildings. Everything we have to offer (from package tracking, to maintenance tracking, to our iPhone and Android applications) is and will continue to be welcomed by the Toronto housing community, as it is all very relevant and valuable. Keep growing, Toronto...we're ready!